The legendary monk who had to choose one of the three offering from a palang of alcohol, a goat and a woman, chose alcohol as it was the least sinful. But in a drunken stupor, he slaughtered the goat and also committed adultery. That is the legendary story of the three sins of alcohol.
Today Bhutan’s alcohol menace is experienced at three levels, the individual, who drinks excessively towards premature death, the family who bears the brunt manifested in domestic violence, divorce and children left out without care. At the third level is the menace experienced in the villages, communities and the nation at large. Alcohol related death leading the cause of deaths in the hospital and the associated soaring medical expenses, increasing violence and crime and alcohol induced accidents.
Clearly two situations seem to flare the alcohol menace. One – alcohol is everywhere, anytime and for everybody. Step outside and the next shop is a bar. 3000 bars in the country is one bar for every 250 Bhutanese. In Thimphu there is a bar for every 100 persons. There is the hotel cum bar. There is the grocery cum bar. There is the stationary cum bar. There is the vegetables and the bar. It is omnipresent.
The second situation that catalyses the alcohol menace is the affordability. We have alcohol of all ranges of price. Everybody can afford it. Perhaps Bhutanese do not have choices in other consumables as we have in alcohol. We import alcohol from about 15 different countries. No other items in Bhutan are imported from such number of countries. Annually Bhutanese are drinking 35 crore worth of imported alcohol. Add this to our own home made brews and the AWP distilled alcohol. As a nation perhaps we are drinking much more alcohol than any other countries.
There is no silver bullet to address such a complex and a pervasive problem. About 30% of the Bhutanese drink alcohol with 20 % drinking regularly. Alcohol plays a dominant role in the cultural rituals and religious ceremonies. The marching, the serkem, the tshogchang and all others make for the religious and cultural identities that we have forged. A large number of entrepreneurs are earning their livelihood by engaging in alcohol based businesses. A large number of Bhutanese have ingrained alcohol as an integral part of their social lives.
Therefore, solutions to address the problem need understanding, persuasion and above all wisdom. The silver bullet is not only elusive but the target seems to be on a wild random movement. The archaic educational campaigns must still be deployed as aggressively as possible. The educational campaign should be backed by a good law. They are the two hands around which all creativity, innovations and practical solutions should be designed to produce a loud applause.
Some of the practices that have been experimented in other countries with similar problems as ours may be considered. Serving of alcohol to youths below the age of 21 can be a stringent regulations built into the law. Driving under the influence of alcohol should be stringently enforced. Restrictions on retail sales outlet are a successful practice that produces result in other societies. Raising tax is a popular policy measure. Prohibition of homemade alcohol production is a special strategy that Bhutan could seriously consider.
50 % of the grains harvested is used for alcohol brewing in the villages. Suspicious and dubious methods are employed to distill alcohol with rumors that used rubber sandals are mixed in the brewing process potentially manufacturing a strong spirit but with greater methyl content - the toxin for cancer. Every Bhutanese home is a potential distillery with resources available, with skills for distillation and the incentives to manufacture. We are then looking at about thousands of alcohol manufacturing unit who would be hidden in their homes. Any other measures to control them such as raising taxes, restricting sales etc. would not be possible. The floodgate of home brewed alcohol would have been opened up.
Bhutan has pertinent lessons to learn from the tobacco law if as a sociaty we channel our energies to address the alcohol problems. First, there is the need to deliberate and dialogue issues at all levels of the society to generate undertsanding and wisdom. Second, massive awareness on new regulations or the law if we do come up with the alcohol law must be undertaken. Third, the implementing machinery must be put in place before the law is actually enforced.
The first step, of course in solving the alcohol problem, is to debate and deliberate. It is high time the Bhutanese society must engage in the deliberation or else many more lives would have been consumed by alcohol.
50 % of the grains harvested is used for alcohol brewing in the villages. Suspicious and dubious methods are employed to distill alcohol with rumors that used rubber sandals are mixed in the brewing process potentially manufacturing a strong spirit but with greater methyl content - the toxin for cancer. Every Bhutanese home is a potential distillery with resources available, with skills for distillation and the incentives to manufacture. We are then looking at about thousands of alcohol manufacturing unit who would be hidden in their homes. Any other measures to control them such as raising taxes, restricting sales etc. would not be possible. The floodgate of home brewed alcohol would have been opened up.
Bhutan has pertinent lessons to learn from the tobacco law if as a sociaty we channel our energies to address the alcohol problems. First, there is the need to deliberate and dialogue issues at all levels of the society to generate undertsanding and wisdom. Second, massive awareness on new regulations or the law if we do come up with the alcohol law must be undertaken. Third, the implementing machinery must be put in place before the law is actually enforced.
The first step, of course in solving the alcohol problem, is to debate and deliberate. It is high time the Bhutanese society must engage in the deliberation or else many more lives would have been consumed by alcohol.
Yes alcohol problem is there and the problem is further magnified from the fallout of tobaco control act, but the problem is just a perceived one. You haven't provided any concrete information to prove that alcohol is a problem and nither I am convinced with few data you have mentioned to prove the point. The fact of the matter is that we have no data which are reliable. Lot of information on alcohol is hearsay and sporadic that are sensationaized by media from isolated incidents. Who gave you the information that evey next shop in Bhutan is a bar shop and where did you hear that farmers use 50% of their produce to alcohol distilling.
ReplyDeleteAs far as what i know about alcohol and problems from its consumption goes,alcohol is good for health, family and community if consumed in moderation. For farmers in rural areas, serving and consuming ara serves as the main source of rejuvenation and revitalization after and in-between farm works. The social and cultural dimension of alcohol consumption is that it infuses life and hapiness in hard farm works and motivates and sustains our age-old shared labour system. Banning homemade ara making can be a huge loss, not in ecomomic terms but in priceless social, cultural and health terms.
With successful development interventions in agriculture sector in Bhutan, farm productivity and production have increased drastically over the last 5 years and farmers have experienced surpluses for the first time. It is only right that farmers have choice and freedom to use these surpluses in whatever way they think is right including using them to make it into ara for self consumption.
On alcohol related problems, ofcourse there are problems but i feel benefits far outweigh problems. The problem, if there is at all is also more in urban centres and more to do with salary and wage earners than our farmers in villages.
I feel any policy or legislation on alcohol should be that we don't bring farmers under its purview when it comes to ban, but focus more on barshops and urban consumers. I support localised ban of alcohol sales and consumption restrictions with very effective fiscal measures. Of course, we need to focus a lot on enforcing well whatever regulations, policies or laws have been put in place. But in all control initiatives, there should be very little adverse impact to our farmers in villages.
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